The African Startup Using Phones to Spot Counterfeit Drugs

A Ghanaian entrepreneur thinks he has the answer to Africa’s fake medicine problem
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5 Reasons You Don't Buy Likes with Facebook Advertising

Facebook advertising can be extremely valuable and cost-effective. But it shouldn't be used to drive likes to a page. Here's why:
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An early expression of democracy, the US patent system is out of step with today's citizens

Founded in 1790, the Patent Office aimed to put innovation and entrepreneurship within reach of every citizen. Now, 225 years later, protesters say an out-of-touch system is doing more the opposite.
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This Wharton Grad Wants You to Live in His Shipping Containers

Luke Iseman has figured out how to afford the San Francisco Bay area. He lives in a shipping container. The Wharton School graduate’s 160-square-foot box has a camp stove and a shower made of old boat hulls. It’s one of 11 miniature residences inside a warehouse he leases across the Bay Bridge from the city, where his tenants share communal toilets and a sense of adventure.
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Comcast is about to fund its biggest media critics with hundreds of millions of dollars

Comcast has earned a reputation as one of America’s most hated companies and there are plenty of people in the media who slam the cable giant on a regular basis. That’s why we’re intrigued about Re/code’s new report claiming that NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast, is about to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into two major media companies that have in the past been some of its toughest critics.
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Cable TV box rental fees cost average household $232 a year

99 percent of customers rent set-top boxes from TV providers, survey found.
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35 Habits That Make Employees Extremely Valuable

Every employer wants employees who contribute to the overall success of the company. Here's how the best bring long-term ROI.
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The end of capitalism has begun

Without us noticing, we are entering the postcapitalist era. At the heart of further change to come is information technology, new ways of working and the sharing economy. The old ways will take a long while to disappear, but it’s time to be utopian
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Americans may soon be seeing far fewer “Made in China” labels at the mall

Sometimes it seems like everything we own has been made in China—the iPhones in our pockets, the TVs in our living rooms, the clothes in our closets, and the toys under the Christmas tree. (And if it’s plastic—the tree, too.) China, after all, manufactures more stuff than any other country in the world.
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Coffee in crisis: the bitter end of our favourite drink?

Drought, flooding, disease - climate change is already threatening the source of our caffeine fix. Are we facing the end of coffee as we know it, asks David Robson.
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Inequality is Central to the Productivity-Pay Gap

Matt Yglesias is an insightful writer, but his recent article, “Hillary Clinton’s favorite chart is pretty misleading” is itself very misleading. Since the Clinton campaign’s “favorite chart” is an EPI chart, which Jared Bernstein and I originally came up with twenty years ago, I think it’s important to set the record straight. The main problem is that Yglesias does not actually engage with the chart he says he’s criticizing.
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What paying fast food workers a living wage would do to the price of a Big Mac

Would you pay 17 extra cents for a Big Mac if it meant the person who prepared it could earn a living wage? What about an extra 30 cents each time you ate out at any fast food restaurant? These are the small prices we would have to pay on average to ensure that fast food workers around the country earned an hourly-wage of $15, according to a new study by researchers at Purdue University's School of Hospitality and Tourism Management.
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Galleries: let's ditch the artspeak and artybollocks

If public galleries really want to be more accessible, they should listen to George Orwell and never use a long word where a short one will do.
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Ex-NBA star Vin Baker conquers demons and shoots for success in Starbucks management

The world’s tallest, and perhaps most famous, barista is stationed behind a busy coffee counter. His smile and easy-going style welcome customers looking for their Starbucks fix as they fastbreak to work or South County’s beaches. “I love North Kingstown. It reminds me of my hometown, so it’s comfortable,” says the man, who stretches to 6-feet-11. “I like this community. Starbucks draws a lot of repeat customers and so many know me now.”
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Pennsylvania Employers Steal Tens Of Millions Of Dollars From Their Workers In Any Given Week

Rampant wage theft is slicing hundreds of millions of dollars out of the Pennsylvania economy each year, a new analysis suggests.
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5 Key Elements of a High-Converting Facebook Ads’ Landing Page

In this article, you’ll learn five key copy and design elements of a high-converting landing pages — for Facebook ads and promoted social media posts.
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Olive Oil Prices Surge Due to Drought and Disease in Spain and Italy

Producers say this year’s harvests are worst they have seen, as consumer demand begins to outstrip supply
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Gaming the system of money-back guarantees

When a company says "we know you'll like it, or your money back," what exactly are they trying to accomplish? The beloved thespian and How I Met Your Mother star promised that Heineken would give me my money back if I didn’t like their light beer. How could I distrust that heartwarming smile, those twinkling eyes, that boyish Broadway-ready face?
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The flawed reality of Google Contributor - paying for fewer ads, not a cause

Yesterday I wrote about the general availability of Google Contributor, a service through which consumers can choose to be billed an amount between $2-10 on a recurring monthly basis in exchange for seeing less display advertisements around the web.
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China's market lesson will be one of wealth transfer

As China's markets stabilise the net result will probably be a transfer of wealth from ordinary Chinese to the wealthy.
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Yanis Varoufakis may face criminal charges over Greek currency plan

Supreme court prosecutor, Efterpi Koutzamani, has ordered parliament to examine an array of complaints against former finance minister
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7 great restaurants to BYOB when eating out in New Orleans

Here are seven New Orleans restaurants where you can pick up a six-pack or bottle of wine to enjoy with your meal.
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Do Fish Names Encourage Fishy Business?

Legally, a single fish species can go by many names from sea to plate, and different fish can go by the same name. An environmental group says that hampers efforts to combat illegal fishing and fraud.
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The Life and Untimely Death of Technology's Weirdest Logo

In 1988 Timothy Wilkinson, a British designer at frog design in Silicon Valley, was tasked with creating a logo for the biggest peripheral maker in the world: Logitech. The company kept Wilkinson’s logo around for almost 30 years. And while it long seemed weird to me, it’s also completely brilliant.
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The Law That May Accidentally Break Times Square: "Those Billboards are Probably Illegal"

That, pictured above, is Times Square, the tourist trap center of New York City. You can tell because there are billboards the size of small aircraft plastered on virtually every vertical square inch. The signs, collectively, are iconic. The billboards define the space, perhaps moreso than the cross-streets (Broadway and Seventh Avenue) or the newspaper (the New York Times) after which the square is named. Times Square wouldn’t be Times Square without the billboards.
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Top Organic Foods To Add To Your Grocery List - Within Your Hands

In an ideal world we would all eat more organically grown food. Not only is it better for our overall health, but it is also better for the health of the planet. Although choosing to go organic can be expensive, as organically grown food typically costs more, it doesn't have to put you over budget.
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Taking the Mickey? Disneyland Paris accused of overcharging foreign visitors

The European Union has said it is investigating whether Disneyland Paris is overcharging customers from certain countries in breach of the bloc’s laws. The European commission said it had received several complaints about the theme park east of the French capital. The case comes just days after Disney was one of several Hollywood studios targeted in a separate investigation as part of a wider commission crackdown on the unfair treatment of consumers.
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If phones were designed to please their owners, rather than corporations

Your smartphone was designed to deliver as much value as possible to its manufacturer, carrier and OS vendor, leaving behind the smallest amount of value possible while still making it a product that you'd be willing to pay for and use. But in south China, the absence of patent and copyright enforcement, combined with enormous manufacturing and design capacity, means that phones for the domestic market are wildly innovative -- more than just endless variations on glass-distraction-rectangles.
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Facebook Is Ready To Share Video Ads Revenue

Facebook says 75% of video views come from a mobile device versus 50% for YouTube
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The Vineyard-to-Table Wine Trend

Top restaurants use their wine lists to highlight the personal stamps and philosophies of the people shepherding the wines from grape to bottle.
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Some restaurants abolish tipping — will more follow suit?

To tip or not to tip? Now, rising minimum wages and moves by high-profile chefs are putting the future of the tip line in jeopardy.
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CEO shares $27 million with staff after selling his firm

This is what profit sharing should look like. The CEO and co-founder of a Turkish food delivery company has paid out $27 million to 114 employees after selling the firm. Nevzat Aydin told Turkish newspaper Hurriet his employees deserved to benefit from the sale. "If there is a success, we have accomplished it all together," he was quoted as saying. Aydin sold Yemeksepeti to Germany's Delivery Hero for $589 million in May. The bonus is worth $237,000 on average.
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GitHub Raises $250 Million at $2 Billion Valuation

GitHub this week raised $250 million from prominent Silicon Valley venture firms, the company said. The infusion raised its valuation to about $2 billion, according to sources familiar with the matter.
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5 Reasons You Don't Buy Likes with Facebook Advertising

Facebook advertising can be extremely valuable and cost-effective. But it shouldn't be used to drive likes to a page. Here's why:
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The absolute worst advice we give to Americans struggling to pay rent

High rents are a national, not just an urban problem. Real estate company Zillow noted this year that in 2015, rents increased nationally by more than 3 percent. Meanwhile, personal incomes are creeping along; in May of 2015, disposable personal income grew just .5 percent. The average national rent, according to ApartmentGuide, is close to $800, while working full-time for the federal minimum wage nets you just under $1,000.
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AT&T doesn’t want to pay $100M fine, says throttling didn’t harm customers

AT&T claims required disclosure to customers violates its 1st Amendment rights. By Jon Brodkin.
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DHI Group Inc. Announces Plans to Sell Slashdot Media

An anonymous reader writes: DHI Group Inc. (formerly known as Dice Holdings Inc.) announced plans to sell Slashdot Media (slashdot.org & sourceforge.net) in their Q2 financial report. This is being reported by multiple sources.
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$1 of every $5 spent in US will be on health care

By 2024, national health expenditures are forecast to be $5.43 trillion annually, according to a new estimate.
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What Militarism Means

Its perfect symbol isn’t Prussia, it’s the F-35. By William S. Lind.
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Georgia claims that publishing its state laws for free online is ‘terrorism’

Government officials have threatened "rogue archivist" Carl Malamud with legal action many times for his efforts to make public government documents widely available for free, but the state of Georgia has set a new standard for fighting this ridiculous battle: It's suing Malamud for infringing its copyright of state laws by — horrors — publishing them online.
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Brinks’ Super-Secure Smart Safes: Not So Secure

"Making these safes smart...has actually drastically reduced the security of something that was fairly safe to begin with." Hacking a Brinks safe with a USB stick in less than a minute
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Investing in Iran after the lifting of sanctions

Just a few days after hosting a historic deal between Iran and the world powers on Tehran's nuclear programme and lifting international sanctions, Vienna has been the venue for deals of a different kind. For the first time in many years, an army of Iranian government officials descended on a business conference in the Austrian capital in a bid to attract foreign investors to Iran after the lifting of sanctions.
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eBay Now rapid delivery service shut down

eBay's US venture into speedy deliveries has ended up in the scrapyard. The online marketplace said Monday it has killed off eBay Now, which it started three years ago to allow its customers to buy items from local stores, such as AutoZone or GNC, and then get them delivered as soon as the same day. Since then, several news reports as far back as a year ago expected eBay Now to shutter based on some early signs...
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"Happy Birthday" Lawsuit: "Smoking Gun" Emerges in Bid to Free World's Most Popular Song

Attorneys for suing filmmakers uncover a blurry version of an 88-year-old book in the files of Warner/Chappell. That leads to another serendipitous discovery.
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Wealth doesn’t trickle down – it just floods offshore, research reveals

A far-reaching new study suggests a staggering $21tn in assets has been lost to global tax havens. If taxed, that could have been enough to put parts of Africa back on its feet – and even solve the euro crisis, writes Heather Stewart.
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The Conundrum of Corporation and Nation

The U.S. economy is picking up steam but most Americans aren’t feeling it. By contrast, most European economies are still in bad shape, but most Europeans are doing relatively well. What’s behind this? Two big facts.
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Almond Milk Is an Even Bigger Scam Than We Thought

Almond Breeze hardly contains any almonds, a class action lawsuit claims.
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The Future of Google+, What New Research Reveals

Wondering where Google+ is headed? In this article, you'll discover recent findings on current Google+ activity and Google's plans for the network.
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The company behind the coffee with butter craze just raised $9 million to open up its first coffee shop

The company behind Bulletproof Coffee, the famous coffee with butter, is expanding into a café business and a new FatWater line. Bulletproof's coffee with butter isn't just a crazy diet fad — it's now a venture-backed business. Its first Starbucks-like café will open in Santa Monica, serving up the trademark Bulletproof coffee.
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Your job will never love you: Stress and anxiety in our frightening new job world

The economy has become so insecure that the very workers who should be wary of employers feel forced to defend them
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